sriperumbudur temple

The weather is extremely pleasant these days and drags you to drive out of the city. I keep telling myself to make the most of the few weeks ahead after which time will be spent in cursing the sun and sweat and refusing to venture out.
We decided on sriperumbudur as a default option. It was to be tiruvallur but we were reminded that it being 'thai amavasai' it would be near impossible to even get inside that temple. Velukudi krishnan in his pothigai timeslot had mentioned about sriperumbudur and the birthplace of sri ramanujar being quite worthy of a visit.
The roads are extremely good and we reached the temple town just under an hour. We were able to witness a 'veedi purappadu' with a fully decorated elephant and a camel leading the procession! Elephant was okay but a camel, here in the heartland of Tamilnadu? We followed the procession around the temple alongwith the 'veda goshti' for a while and alongwith the 'divyaprabandam' group for a while. The route was through the 'agraharams' and stopped at every house for an archanai. Invariably every lady was in her 'madisar' and every man in his 'panchakacham'. The houses were typical with low roof verandah with tinnai.
The main deity is 'adikesava perumal' and a sannidhi for Ramanujar was adjacent to the main deity. The temple appears very old and we were told it was built more than two thousand years ago. The walls of the inner prakaram were full of pictorial depictions of ramanujar's life written in both telugu and tamil.Plan to come leisurely and read up all these stories sometime.Ramanujar's life and achievements is fascinating. I was reminded of this incident in his life; he was in search of a guru and after a long search found one in manavala nambi. He taught him 'pranava manthra' and told him that it is a secret not to be shared with anybody. The very next day Ramanuja climbed on top of a mantapa in the town and relayed the mantra to all passers by. His guru was enraged and came and met him and asked him if he was aware of the punishment he will be meeted out for disobeying his guru. Ramanujar said yes, he will go to hell. But then he is prepared for the same, if many others on hearing the mantra are able to go to heaven!
We had good prasad and also collected 'puliyodarai, laddu,adhirasam and murukku ' from the 'mada palli' and headed back to the city.
However much I regard saints in great esteem, i was not able to worship ramanujar in his sannidhi right next to that of adikesava perumal's sannidhi. Gods and gurus different levels...